Excelsior Terrace - IL 704 Sec:D-G [1920-1988] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Excelsior Terrace - IL 704 Sec:D-G [1920-1988]

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Submitted by annelisec on Mon, 2010-03-08 14:03
Current condition: 
Demolished / No longer exists
Date Place completed: 
1920-01-01
Date Place demolished: 
1988-01-01

Based on a 1988 map I have, I think Excelsior Terrace (a lane by that name still exists) replaced the house "Fernside", which was originally on the uphill portion of  IL 704.  The lower portion was very steep garden.

Fernside appers to have been subdivided into "Excelsior Terrace" (Sec. D, E, F, G) and the garden (Sec. A, B, C).

I have put the built date as 1920 because I found a listing of someone at Excelsior Terrace in 1921 through Google Books.  It may have been built much earlier.

It was redeveloped into Valiant Park in 1993.

[The lot next door to the west, IL 1661, was originally the house named Excelsior.   Perhaps the name Fernside did not have the same marketing appeal.]

Leases of IL 704,  71-81 ROBINSON ROAD

1861 - EDWARD BURNIE
1900 - CHAN HEWAN

Lot was then subdivided into A through G and Remaining Portion (RP)

Example:

75B ROBINSON ROAD

1948 - WONG KWAN CHENG - Sec. E & F
1953 - ENG CHOY MEI MAY 1/4 share
1953 - TAM YUK LAN - 1/4 share

 

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Photos that show this place

1926
1935
1946
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Comments

Submitted by Admin on Fri, 2011-01-21 14:50.

Question from FormerTerraceResident:

Was Excelsior Terrace a street as well?

There are terrace steps between Robinson Mansion (77 Robinson Road) and Robinson Crest (71-73 Robinson Road).  Might these steps be originally be the street Excelsior Terrace? 

The Hong Kong Post still lists Excelsior Terrace as a street that is covered by one of the post offices.  Furthermore, the Bulletin of the Hong Kong Chinese Medical Association had listed Dr. Sung Sheung Hei's address as "75C Robinson Road" (suggesting that his residence would have been somewhere between 73 and 77 Robinson Road, perhaps set back from Robinson Road in a terraced street) in some issues of the bulletin, and "93 Excelsior Terrace, Robinson Road" in other issues of the Bulletin. 

I know that in the past, some buildings on Terraces had addresses that included both the name of the Terrace as well as the main street that the Terrace was associated with.  Furthermore, elsewhere in Gwulo, I have read that Sir Shouson Chow also had a home on Excelsior Terrace;  this suggests that Excelsior Terrace was a street with individual dwellings instead of just an apartment complex.  It would have been highly unlikely for someone of Sir Shouson Chow's prominence to live in an apartment in those days.  It is also definitely possible that a building co-opted the name "Excelsior Terrace" as the neighborhood became more developed over time.

Annelise replies:

Sir Shouson and Lady Chow

"Sir Shouson and Lady Chow invited us all to luncheon at their house at Excelsior Terrace, 91 Robinson Road"

Chiang Kai-shek's secret past: the memoir of his second wife, Chʻen Chieh-ju
 By Jieru Chen, Lloyd E. Eastman

Shouson Chow (Chou Ch'ang-ling) was 50 years old when he retired from the Chinese Imperial Service and came to Hong Kong in 1911.  His family clan in "little Hong Kong"( Aberdeen in English), pre-dated the British, and his father had been wealthy compradore of the Canton-based Canton and Hong Kong Steamship Company

Excelsior Terrace still

1. The lane Excelsior Terrace still exists, but not on Google maps.  It is on the downhill side of Valiant Park.

You can find it on the HK Government Maps online (www.map.gov.hk) or www.centamap.com

2. The address 75B Robinson Road was for the middle two lots, D & E.

Submitted by Herostratus on Tue, 2016-05-24 13:15.

I think there was first a house Here called Excelsior which was demolished and Excelsior Terrace Built on Both the Fernside and Excelsior Lots. Excelsior House was between Burnside and Fernside.